The Walking Dead
Episode 2, “Guts”

Voracious D’s Review:

For the series premiere of The Walking Dead, I may have come off as a bit of a curmuddgeon. With the gloom and doom predictions and the likening of watching the premiere to a tilted game of Russian Roulette, it may have been lost that I actually liked the first episode. It strayed off the path, sure, but it was, at heart, the television translation of the comic. Except that giant elephant in the room that was the episodes ending. I didn’t mention it, but I know I wasn’t the only one who was thinking, “Where’d that tank come from?”

That tank, my friends, came from the dark and frightening place called “creative license.” This is the same place that gives Spider-Man organic webshooters, the Batsuit nipples, turns Bullseye into a bald and inept tosser straight from a pub in lower Belfast and does whatever it is that Uwe Boll does to video game movies. If anything should have been deciphered from the premiere review, it was the underlying voice pleading “Don’t fuck with this. Don’t mess around with this. Please?”

Episode 2, “Guts” fucks with us. From the moment the riot suit clad calvary come to clear the way for Glenn and Rick, hopes of continuity flowed away. Whatever dream may have existed of a direct to TV adaptation of The Walking Dead evaporated at this moment. This is not The Walking Dead you’ve read, this is a vastly reconsidered version. And you know what?

I think it works.

Once I swallowed the hard pill that all the volumes of Kirkman’s masterworks were going to be guidelines at best, it became clearer to me that maybe regurgitation would not be the fondest form of flattery. As Rick stares down the barrel of Andrea’s gun, a thrilling idea creeped into my mind: I don’t know what’s going to happen. In introducing new survivors, putting familiar faces in unfamiliar spaces and overall reworking the plotline of the first issues, AMC’s The Walking Dead has now put fans of the series and fans of the show in the same boat. We have no idea where this boat may be going, but we should all be equally committed to staying on board.

“Guts” also introduces us to a character who had a vocal cameo at the end of last episode: Glenn. I say “introduces us” because this Glenn is different. This Glenn calls Rick a “dumbass” from the outset and manages not only to have two cents, but have people listen to his two cents. I like this Glenn. Stephen Yeun has breathed fresh life into this character and his performance in this episode has made his Glenn one of my personal favorite characters (which, in The Walking Dead world is a dangerous thing to declare). While Andrew Lincoln once again solidifies his ability to not just play but be Rick Grimes, Yeun has made Glenn his own and I’m far from complaining.

As is the case in ensemble dramas, it may take some time for me to feel as strongly about the other characters. When Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori) and Laurie Holden (Andrea) get more screen time, I’m sure the hints of their own respective acting chops will be brought to light.

This was a very interesting episode that I may need more time to digest. A new dynamic was introduced and just when I came to grips with it, the scenes for the next episode began to roll. There were some memorable sequences in this episode and as I shake off the shellshock, I’m convinced that I’ll be back next Sunday.

P.S. If you didn’t like the end of this episode, I’m pretty sure you also don’t like America, puppies or the concept of “awesome.”

The Walking Dead
Episode: “Days Gone By”
Channel: AMC

Voracious D’s Review:
It’s here. Finally. After months of casting speculation, teaser trailers, promo photos and even an AMC supported fan trailer, the day has finally come. Robert Kirkman’s ongoing series of horror and survival, The Walking Dead, makes its television debut. We haven’t made much to do about this day because we here at HZA are comic fans. Comic fans view days like today with equal parts trepidation and tremendous anticipation. Our stomachs are hurricanes of gastric acid as the butterflies of hope dodge the knives of impending disappointment. We have long memories and know that for every The Dark Knight, there’s a Batman & Robin. Every time a beloved franchise makes the transition from card stock to celluloid is like a round of Russian Roulette: we hope the gun’s full of nothing but the joy of another day, but we’re clenching our teeth with the hidden expectation of a bullet to the brain. Today, we load the barrel once more, muttering what’s become the traditional hymn of days like today: “Please don’t let them fuck this one up.” So let’s pull the trigger, shall we, and see what, if anything, comes out.

And…we live another day. Next Sunday, the gun will come out again as thoughts that this is just honeymooning, that nothing gold can stay, but for now, we should all bask in the glow of a damn fine episode. Not just a great episode of a zombie series, but good television in general, much like the source material stands as a paramount of both the zombie genre and the comic medium.

Changes have been made. We were told this very early on. Interviews mentioned things that alterations would be made, but “in the spirit of The Walking Dead.” A phrase like this has often translated to shitting over the source material, not working anywhere near its spirit. This is usually jive and doublespeak that more or less states that “Yes, we’re going to dance with your date” and, more audaciously, “You’ll be better for it.” The Walking Dead is an example that sometimes, just sometimes, producers, directors and actors aren’t lying to you.
The largest change has to be the characterization of Morgan. It’s a well known fact that Kirkman himself wanted to do more with Morgan and Duane, bit characters from the first issue of the comic, and that the television series would be the likely vehicle for their overhaul. Specific plot points are deviated from in making this change. Rick doesn’t have his first tangle with the zombies in the hospital, he doesn’t have a simple misunderstanding with Morgan and Duane, then hand hold them through his departure toward Atlanta. Morgan has been made more suspicious, more dynamic and, honestly, more of a character, overall. The story has been changed significantly, a cardinal sin typically, but it is very hard to argue with the result. Drama has been added, the story more textured. Damnit, they were right, this was a change made “in the spirit of The Walking Dead” and it works.

Other than this, there are minor departures from the first issues on which this first episode is based. Scenes take place that never existed in the comics, which, again, is a huge no-no. Again, though, the logic of the scenes make sense. A comic doesn’t necessarily make a one-to-one exchange with television. There is time and space that’s crossed between one panel to the next that a television show just can’t work with. These additional scenes simply fill in those gaps. I think it’s pretty neat to see how Rick managed to find a horse to ride into Atlanta with and I don’t mind seeing the RV campsite before Rick does, because we all know it’s going to be there, anyway. Only the die hard purist, who would be pleased with nothing short of an hour long slide show of comic panels, could be upset with what the creative team behind The Walking Dead TV show has done so far.

Visually, the show only impresses more. As Rick rides into Atlanta, a graveyard of deadlocked and abandoned cars on his left and the city looming before him, a little voice should be squealing inside you, declaring that this is the show you were looking for. Of course, this isn’t the only time nor the first. From the outset, you get zombies. Boy do you get zombies. I wouldn’t use the word “terrifying,” to describe them, but these are absolutely grotesque monsters. Dismembered, decayed and moaning, it would be hard to argue that these didn’t shamble their way straight out of the comics. Just as no gun is good without its bullet, no zombie can be considered properly done without an equally well done death and The Walking Dead does one good headshot. Then another. And another. The show is fairly violent and yet isn’t superfluously so. It may be stylized and it may be brutal, but the violence isn’t aggrandized and has a nice balance to it.

Overall, The Walking Dead has made an impressive beginning. The hype, thus far, has been justified and the set-up for next week’s episode gives no signs of a dramatic drop off. I know, for sure, I’ll be back next Sunday.
Oh and by the way, good luck to those of you entering to stagger onto a future episode.

Well ladies and gents, the time has come. By the time most of you read this post, Dead Rising 2 will be out and available to the general public. I grabbed my own copy about two hours ago and I can already tell it’ll be hogging my 360 for quite some time.

Given the short amount of time I’ve had with the game, this post is obviously not going to be a full review. For right now, I just wanted to share some of my first impressions of Dead Rising 2. We’ve been hyping this release date pretty heavily for the last few months, so I figured it was only fair to put those expectations to the test immediately.

I’d love to go into the cross compatibility between Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, the LIVE Arcade prequel, and the full length Dead Rising 2, but I’m afraid I haven’t tested that to it’s full capacity. For 360 owners, you will be prompted to export your Case Zero character into Dead Rising 2 which amounts to transferring all the cash and PP you acquired in Case Zero. Beyond that, I’m not sure how much what you’ve done in Case Zero affects the retail game. This is because, like a newbie Capcom gamer, I only kept one save file from Case Zero and let’s just say I wasn’t the most caring father in my last run through. My belief, however, is that you will have to “restart the story,” regardless of how you ended Case Zero, which really only means that you’re starting Dead Rising 2. I will definitely try and test this out before my final write-up, but, in any case, the money and experience you’re taking with you are very helpful, the latter much more immediately than the former.

Don’t worry PS3 owners, you’re not missing out on much. While it’s nice to have a headstart, the game experience itself isn’t drastically altered by the presence or absence of Case Zero.

Like the original Dead Rising and Case Zero, it doesn’t take long before you’re knee deep in the undead. I noticed a few things about Dead Rising 2 that separates it, however. The first is how well the game processes the amount of zombies crammed into the screen. This won’t be necessarily obvious as you are dropped into the gameplay at the beginning, for reasons I’ll discuss momentarily, but a few minutes in and it’s pretty impressive how many zombies and other characters fit on the screen without much noticeable slowdown. Even Case Zero dragged when there was far too much hot zombie action and suffice it to say that the retail game has much more going on at any given moment.

The other thing I noticed about Dead Rising 2 is how very different Capcom approached this game. In Dead Rising and even in Case Zero, the player is thrust into a horde of zombies, but the goal is survival first, retaliation later. Dead Rising 2 starts with an introduction to the world’s most dangerous reality game show, Terror Is Reality, wherein contestants kill zombies with the chance to win prize money. Chuck Greene is one such contestant and the player begins with a quick round of the game, shifting the focus from being overwhelmed, overmatched and in need of a mix of strategy and ingenuity to having a great deal of advantage over the zombies. It’s a short segment, and I’m pretty sure you’re destined to place 2nd, but it’s still a fun and slightly different way to start the game.

This game show format actually makes up a section of Dead Rising 2‘s multiplayer functionality, one of the huge additions to the series. I’d love to tell you how a game of Terror is Reality works, but for some reason, there aren’t too many people online an hour (or four, depending on where you live) after the game hits the streets. Go figure. It looks pretty cool, still, and I approve of a competitive game mode that can net me money that I believe can be used in the game.

The other multiplayer feature that I’m pretty stoked about, but, again, haven’t been able to see in action is the co-op mode. While I say “mode,” the impression that I’m getting from the game is that co-op and single player are going to be as seamlessly integrated as possible. As in, your friends can pop in to your single player game at any time and drop out just as easily. I find that seamless features are rarely as seamless as promised, but if it works even remotely as advertised, I’ll be happy.

Now, the downsides. Yes, even with only a short time logged, there are some warning flags coming up. Fortunately, these are things I’d augured from Case Zero and I’m sure anybody who played that title will expect these things. First, the time limit. I’ve just gotten my first mission and I already feel the time limit hindering me. Letting the player out into the open game world for the first time and restricting them with a pretty short deadline seems a little unfair. It’s like taking your kids to Disneyland for the first time, only to tell them they only have five minutes to see the entire park. I know I’ll be able to spend an ample amount of time in these areas as the game progresses, but I’d like maybe a little time right now to explore the game environment. This is especially because, as I mentioned in the Case Zero review, the environment begs to be explored. You may start off in the familiar backdrop of a mall, but this mall seems much more like a mall than the one in Willamette. The layout seems much less clustered than in the original game, but still evokes the claustrophobia of actually being a mall. Compound that with a much higher capacity of zombies roaming about and you can’t help but want to go head hunting and exploring. This time limit thing, however, forces the player to reign in that instinct, which I think is a step in the wrong direction.

Next, the bathrooms. I mentioned in the Case Zero review that the commode is once again the safest place to save a file, but I had also said that they seemed much easier to access than in Dead Rising. Well, that didn’t quite transfer over to Dead Rising 2. So far, I haven’t had much issue with saving, but this is because I didn’t need to look for a save point yet. I can see, however, that the larger mall area is going to mean larger gaps between bathrooms, which means once again fighting through waves of zombies in search of a bathroom because I don’t have the time to complete an objective.

The handset also returns, but seems so much less intrusive than in Dead Rising. For one thing, I have yet to get a random call while in the middle of fighting zombies because the person on the other line is bored. The handset is used primarily to alert you of deadlines and objective details with the auxiliary function of accessing co-op options.

So far so good, however, and I’m looking forward to battling through Fortune City as soon as I get at least a couple hours of sleep in me. Expect a full (or fuller) review within the next week or so.

One more thing: when you have a moment, take some time on the start screen. The tourist bureau of Fortune City has a few words for you.